The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-23
TOMATO CANNERIES.
Progress of the Tomato From
Field to Consumer.
Ono of the Great Industries of
New Jersey.


and loaded on wagon arposely ar
ranged for the purpose. The farmer
takes the load to the can house and is
met by ''wa9on master" who assign.
him place in the procession and he
puts his wagon in it, If he is q prudent
and industrious farmer he unhitches his
horses and returns to his farm with his
team, for he can, in all probability 90
home, gather another load and return
to the canning house before his first load
is wanted at the ''scalder"
Long lines of farm wagons loaded
with this fruit may be seen around
each of the great establishments. The
farmers in most cases have gone home
and left their wagons unguarded They
are perfectly safe. Tomatoes are so
abundant that not even the street gamin
will modest them. Som etimes "a hours
pass between the time a wagonload is
delivered to the wagon master and
its delivery to the scalder. The scalder
is the primary machine in the canning
factory, unless the scales be chased as
part of the factory. The scales are in
the street, but the register is inside of
the office. The farmer, who, by the
grace Of the wagon master has the next
turn at the scalder, is told TO pull his
wagon on to the scales, and the
wagon, basket, and man are all weighed
together. Then he is told to ''pull
up" to the scalder. This scalder IS
large box tub, made square. into which
there is turned steam pipe by which the
water may be kept hot. Inside of the
scalder and working on hinges there is
half round iron basket that will hold the
tomatoes This basket is so arranged
that man with a rope running through
block can lower the tomatoes into scald-
ing water or lift them out at will. Usu-
ally two baskets are put into the scaldar
at time, and by the time the farmer
can walk the four or five steps backward
to the wagon and return these two bas-
kets of tomatoes have been scalded and
by a movement of the rope sent into
tubs, and it Is said that they are washed
at the same time that they are scalded
but, as the water in which th ey are
scalded is generally so muddy as to
make it impossible to see tomato a
hairs breadth under the surface, rather
question the cleaning process.
81, 5
than others, but there is not a factory
that has so far overcome the difficulty
of washing. And so far as | have seen,
that is the feature of the packing that
is not perfect, excepting that none Of the
factories wash their cans before using
them. The women who skin" the to-
matoes might come into the factory
with unclean hands. but in five minutes
work the hand Of the tidiest and most
cleanly woman in the place would be no
cleaner than those of the most unt4dy, so
rapid is the action Of the tomato acid in
taking the dirt from the hands. After
the tomatoes have been ''skinned' thev
are thrown into buckets, and Whenever
woman flfs an lra;nar,, water a,,cln+
,l.o ;-~..;...,, ll,..',. ,,.}.,.1. ...;,.- 49,.
to aor i cents ,ranv women here will
..skin 80 buckets ner dav or , an hour
When the bas kets are filled a man
throws them into the homer of ma
chine called ,.stufrrr." These machines
are usually operated by steam power,
and = nreesur4 Of the feet sends can
full of tomatoes into a can. seldom fail
ing to fill it. TO prevent having light
cans, each one as it is taken away from
the tsstuffer'' i~ passed to Il woman
termed stfni,her." and she sees that it
is properly filled. In several Of the fac
tories that visited there was being
successfully operated a machine bv
which by the use of unskilled labor the
caps could be soldered to ten cans at one
77 .l,..4 :. ,o..,...1.. ,-,-.....
"0ie" ~ "'''' ~ commonly Nh'"n a.
1rg1h n fTrNTx Il